Heroic Awakening
by origamishishou
Summary: There are 204 bones in the body of an average, adult, human (without a mutant type quirk) and roughly 300 at birth. Izuku's going to have to break more than a few to be a hero.
1. Build Me Up, Tear Me Down

Long-time reader of stories, first time writer.  
Criticism is welcome.

When Izuku awoke on a thin, paper-covered, mattress, with a needle in the back of his hand, a cuff on his wrist, and a freight train running through his head, his first thoughts were not the 'Where am I, what happened, why does my mouth taste how a sewer smells?' gamut which would be expected of him. His actual first thoughts went something like 'I HAVE LEGS!'

To understand why he thought this we must travel 3 hours previous and 6 blocks southwest to the grounds of Orudera middle school where Izuku finds himself on the ground, facing the sky, in a daze within reaching distance of a small koi pond.

Rising, unsteadily, to his feet, using the aforementioned concrete structure, he glances briefly at its contents and reaches towards his Hero Analysis/clearly not fish-food notebook. Shooing a few curious koi from nibbling at the waterlogged, yet singed, cover, he clutches his hard work to his chest, thanking his lucky stars that his stationery choices have tended to be weather resistant after past mishaps.

Ignoring his surroundings (an effort he would later find himself quite impressed by) he began to journey in the vague direction of home. Coming to the underpass he makes use of, due to cutting down his travel time to and from school, he realises, with a start, that he is not in possession of his backpack. Wondering how he could have made it so far without realising he was unencumbered by the mass of several textbooks, he failed to notice the dull scraping sound of a manhole cover shifting.

There are 204 bones in the body of an average, adult, human (without a mutant type quirk) and roughly 300 at birth. When the slime villain forced itself around Izuku's face and torso, it broke 2 of them, with the force of so much fluid impacting such a small area.

The shock and fear Izuku felt when the villain appeared was quickly dwarfed when the excruciating pain from his sternum and part of his clavicle snapping, momentarily ceased only to be replaced by a deadened feeling of his chest cavity stretching. He would have attributed this to the criminal currently attempting to invade his nose and mouth but the villain's yell of "What's the big idea", coming through the viscous fluid in his ears said otherwise and added confusion to his list of emotions overwhelming his conscious thoughts.

Having 96% of the bones in your body suddenly liquefy and all of your muscles and cartilage suddenly expanding and reshaping into something unrecognisable is an experience few can admit to having experienced, fewer would be able to articulate and fewer still would even want to attempt to do so. With his nervous system stretching and rearranging to an utterly alien configuration Izuku could only flail and try to scream as the enormous mass of flesh and sinew that made up his being filled the limited space provided by the underpass before sealing off one entrance. Feeling a wriggling near the nerve clusters he used to attribute to his left arm, he had a sudden realisation that the sludge villain was trapped between the concrete wall and the, now oversized, wall of skin that he thought was his front.

Unable to see due to not knowing the location of his eyes (if he still had any), he was unable to see the top hero of Japan exit the same manhole the villain had but was certainly still able to hear the startled, English, exclamation of "**HAVE NO FEAR FOR- WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS****‽**"

In any other situation Izuku might be impressed that All Might could pronounce an interrobang and would be somewhat proud of himself for knowing what that was but at this moment he could only focus on figuring out if he had vocal cords and if he could use them to ask all might for help.

Unfortunately for the two parties trapped in the tunnel the only noise Izuku was able to produce, with some effort, was a high pitched, vibrato, screeching from the end that facing the other end of the underpass.

Luckily the third party of this peculiar circumstance, instead of the being meathead some other heroes might assume him to be and punching away this problem, All Might inferred that there was more to this situation than he knew and decided some information gathering wouldn't go amiss.

"**IF YOU CAN UNDERSTAND ME, CEASE WRITHING!**"

Izuku immediately ceased writhing.

Perplexed by the sudden compliance of the, apparently sentient, creature blocking the tunnel, All might deduced that this may be the result of quirk usage gone awry and maintained his heroic composure.

"**MAY I PUT MY HANDS UPON YOUR PERSON?**"

A nearby calloused protrusion, that could, charitably, be called a tail if it weren't so stubby and tipped with a large, fang-like extension, wiggled slightly as if to say "Please help."

Taking that as confirmation All might took hold of another fang-like off shoot from the ground in one hand and slid his other hand underneath to ease the seal of air pressure and friction trapping the poor citizen within the confines of the underpass.

"**IF YOU CAN MAKE YOURSELF ANY THINNER, PLEASE DO SO. THIS MAY FEEL SOMEWHAT UNCOMFORTABLE BUT I'M GOING TO TRY AND PULL YOU OUT. IF YOU WISH ME TO STOP, WIGGLE YOUR TAIL.**"

All Might is very charitable hero.

6 and a half minutes of activity (Not unlike pulling an overfilled full garbage bag out of a plastic bin by pulling slowly from side to side) later and Izuku, as well as the villain who had left a long green stain on the wall, had been freed from the tunnel, even if the villain only had a short while of freedom before being ensconced by a pair of soda bottles courtesy of All might's groceries.

Izuku had finally been able to open his eyes, of which he had several (allaying his earlier worries of not having any). The 7 or so on his front were having trouble staying open to focus on All Might, whatever adrenaline that had been keeping the pain away had drained and left him very sore and heavily fatigued.

Slowly losing a battle against unconsciousness, the last thing Izuku saw before fading was All Might's concerned face, haloed by copious amounts of steam.


	2. Wobbly Tooth, Crunchy Apple

What the hell is an upload schedule?

Had trouble finding motivation to write this. Sorry it took so long.

Saifera General Hospital, Room 230 (secure wing).

With a quirk suppressant cuff on one wrist and an ID bracelet reading 'Nanashi Gonbei' on the other, Izuku Midoriya took in his surroundings with as much aplomb as he could muster.

That being not very much at all, he was nearly hyperventilating at the influx of sensory input, from having all of his nerves back in their usual configurations to the novelty of having binocular vision instead of the multi-directional mess from earlier.

His rise in heart rate signalled to the hospital staff that their unknown patient had awakened (or was potentially seizing from the irregularity being displayed) and his assigned doctor notified. Unaware of this fact, yet a rather rational and methodical thinker, Izuku's panic had lost steam and he had begun to rationalise his situation.

Going over his most recent memories, slightly jumbled though they were, he had deduced that either there were three likely scenario's that had led to his current predicament.

First was that the vocal sludge that had assaulted him had a quirk that mutated others in unpredictable ways and had been caught by surprise by the result.

Second was there had been someone else at the scene besides him and the slime man who had initiated his transformation.

Third was he'd been hit so hard he'd dreamt the entire thing and was recover- no wait that didn't explain the quirk cuffs. No it had to be-

"Ahem!"

If he hadn't been tethered to the bed he likely would have reached the ceiling by how high he jumped after registering he wasn't alone.

Doctor Nishin Kurenai (or Kurenai Sensei as she was usually addressed) had been observing the green haired teen mumble to himself for a full 3 minutes before announcing her presence because in spite of her time being quite valuable she found his deliberations to be, at the very least, somewhat endearing, like watching a dog waiting eagerly at a glass door that's already open.

She approached the bed, retrieved an electronic clipboard from under her arm and a stylus pen from her lab coat pocket, intending to rectify the lack of an identity on her paperwork.

"You are able to understand me?" she ventured.

"Y-yes," was the refined response.

"Are you able to tell me your name, date of birth and address?"

"Uhh, Mi-midoriya Izuku, July fi-fifteenth 2236, 3-2-206 Musutafu. Um … why am I cuffed to the bed?"

"You were flailing quite a bit after your form resettled, likely from pain as you were exhibiting the signs of a penetrating chest injury with severe bruising around your upper chest as if you'd been stabbed in lung through the sternum. Despite this somehow no foreign bodies, breaks or even fractures were found. We were hoping you could explain if this is a part of your quirk?"

"I don't have one."

"Pardon?"

"I said I don't have one," he reiterated with a downcast look on his face, avoiding her eyes, expecting pity or disdain as most adults usually displayed whenever that fact was brought up.

"Your, rather dramatic, entrance to this facility would suggest otherwise."

"I uhm, had been wondering how I ended up here. The last thing I remember was All Might rescuing me from a villain who turned me into a … something? I remember all my nerves went weird, like if you rewired a robot and told it to try to move normally. I had all these teeth and eyes everywhere and my mouth was where I would say the top of my head should be and there were these two long floppy things on either side of me that sort of felt like arms but not-"

"MIDORIYA-KUN!"

"S-sorry."

With a slightly exasperated look Dr. Nishin continued "An ambulance was called to your location by a Samaritan and when it arrived they were met with the form you have just described. The man explained that he worked for All Might and had been called to keep the situation in hand, whilst he delivered the villain to the police, and to relay everything to the emergency responders. The EMTs applied quirk suppressants and you shrank down to as you are now, though far more injured."

Izuku's expression had run through a wide array of emotions throughout the explanation before settling on puzzlement towards the conclusion.

"B-but in order for the sup-p-pressants to have had that effect, I'd have to have a ..." unable to finish the supposition, a small sob shook his body.

"A late onset quirk awakening is usually limited to about the age of 6 or 7. One beginning after the onset of puberty has been thought to be completely impossible. Can you think of what cause- Wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. Do you have a parent or guardian I can call? I can't do further bloodwork on a minor without adult consent."

Izuku froze.

His mother was going to throw kittens, spew bricks and die of a conniption when she hears about all of this.

ℋ ∑ ℛ Ǥ

Approximately 40 minutes and one very loud, watery, phone call later and Inko Midoriya was cradling her son (see squeezing him within and inch of his life), sobbing incoherently, if justifiably, about any of the number of things she'd arrived to address. For starters her baby was in the hospital, for another, he'd been attacked by a villain and for a third she was being told he suddenly had a quirk a decade late. To say she was a bit emotional was like saying being in a room with endeavour could be a bit warm.

"We'll have the results back to you within 3-5 days Midoriya-san. We will be looking into the original testing by this Dr. Tsubasa, and see if we can glean how such a lacklustre health practitioner has gone unchallenged for so long. Toe joints as an indicator has been a discredited practice for nearing 30 years now, especially considering mutant type quirks and secondary mutations. Your son displaying your green hair and eye colour are major indicators as quirkless, ethnic Japanese tend not to exhibit such traits."

Passing off the newly printed, patient information packet as well as the pathology forms to a nurse, Dr. Nishin suppressed a tired sigh and informed Inko that they'd like to keep him for another hour to check that the combined suppressants wouldn't have any lingering after-effects.

Turning to leave she glanced at the television that had been playing on mute since before the frightened mother had arrived to keep Izuku's mind off the nausea associated with intravenous quirk suppressors. Noting that a suspected villain attack had flattened part of a nearby school building she decided to pick herself up an unhealthy dose of caffeine because her shift wasn't ending anytime soon.

Inko, having calmed considerably, glanced up from her son, whose expression hadn't shifted from a thousand-yard stare since the announcement of him no longer being classed as quirkless (thinking over ten years of names, bruises, burns and isolation that could have been avoided), and the image on the television sparked some recognition.

"Izuku, sweetie … I-isn't that your school?"

With a robotic stiffness Izuku slowly raised his head to look at the TV and life returned to his features in the form of fear.

There, on the evening news were the remnants of Orudera middle school, two titanic gashes had been torn through the building and the area where they began had been completely flattened, a banner at the bottom of the screen expounding that, miraculously no one on site had been injured though a bright teal, glowing residue, resembling blood in consistency, had been found within the wreckage which seemingly combusted with minimal heat when touched. The footage cut to a news drone giving a birds eye view of the scene revealing an even more bewildering perspective.

As the camera view rose higher, the pattern of destruction gave way to an unmistakable silhouette of a human pair of legs.

As the mother and son were processing their shock, a tall, plain-looking policeman walked through the open door, knocking on the frame before entering.

"Pardon the intrusion, I'm Detective Tsukauchi Naomasa. I'm looking for Midoriya Izuku!"

Dun Dun D- ouch, I bit my cheek.

A few easter eggs in this chapter for people who are looking.

\- Saifera is a play on Thyferra from Star Wars where Bacta (healing goop) is apparently made.

\- Nanashi Gonbei is basically Japanese John Doe

\- The address given is, kind of, in jūkyo hyōji; it means they live in block 3, building 2, apartment 206 (The building 2 thing is actually from the manga but the rest is fabricated).

\- The Doctor's name is written thusly in Japanese: 鰊紅. Make of that what you will.

\- There will likely be nods to other (better) fics but hopefully no explicit theft. If there's uncanny resemblance with any others put it in a review and we'll find out if it's intentional or not.

Most of this story is planned out in my head but actually sitting down and writing it up is pushing proverbial uphill so updates may be sporadic.

If you have any questions/clarifications or just wanna yell at me my tumblr URL is baggytrousers27.


	3. Who can it be now?

Sorry for another update gap but the vicinity was on fire, the heat was above 40ºC (105ºF) for a while, my meds are losing effectiveness and *Checks conspiracy news* China unleashed a virus onto the world to lift sanctions?

Kay. Anyway have a chapter.

"What do you want with my son?" asked Inko in an apprehensive tone.

"Are you aware of the current crisis at Orudera middle school?"

"I just saw it on the news, a villain attack?"

"We're investigating at present. A yellow All Might backpack was found near the epicentre of the wreckage as well as a pair of red sneakers," he said, producing said items from a large plastic bag, "The contents of the backpack suggests they belong to Midoriya-kun. Considering the shoe lockers are undamaged and at the front of the building we were hoping he could tell us why they might be present in the wreckage."

Inko's gaze turned to Izuku who looked just as puzzled as she did.

"Midoriya-kun?" asked the detective.

Hesitating briefly, eyebrows furrowed while answering, "I'm not entirely sure. I remember my notebook ended up going out the window earlier, because I was clumsy, but I don't remember leaving my stuff in the classroom."

"That's because they weren't in a classroom," Naomasa announced to the two greenettes' surprise, "Had they been within the building they would have been buried under the wreckage. For them to have ended up where they were they would have had to have been on the roof when it collapsed."

"But why were they there, I hardly ever go up th-"

Izuku froze. He looked down, his eyes hidden by his hair.

Tsukauchi, who wasn't just a detective because of his quirk, turned to the boy's mother.

"Midoriya-san, may I speak with your son privately for a moment? He's not in trouble."

Halfway through raising an objection Izuku cut her off "Kaasan … please. It's alright."

Looking between her son and the policeman, her discomfort at leaving Izuku's side clear from her body language. After the distressing phone call telling her he was in the hospital, being separated from her baby seemed to be akin to abandonment in his time of need.

Reluctantly, with a brief embrace and a watery smile to Izuku, she huffed a sigh, gave the detective an appraising look and made her way to the door.

"I'll go and see if the cafeteria does Katsudon."

Izuku didn't look up as the detective occupied the seat that had just been vacated.

"Midoriya-kun, can you tell me why your belongings were on the roof of your school?"

"Because I left them there."

**TRUTH**

"Why did you leave them there?**"**

"Because I wasn't going to need them**"**

**TRUTH**

"And why was that?"

"Because I was going to jump."

**TRUTH**

Sighing inwardly at the can of worms he'd opened, Naomasa's expression morphed from neutral to a frown.

"Going to? You changed your mind?" Mild relief.

"No."

**TRUTH**

His frown deepened. "You feel you will try to attempt suicide in the future?"

"Probably not."

**TRUTH?**

"Probably?"

"Well it didn't work this time ..."

ℋ∑ℛΌℐℭ ȺώᗩҜℰℵĮℕǤ

As Inko waited in line at the cafeteria she pondered her and her son's situation. She knew people treated him differently, sometimes very poorly, because he was quirkless. Would that change now that circumstances had? Would he still come home with scuffed clothing, hiding bruises and scorch marks from her? Would this affect his dreams of being a hero? Would he forgive her words all those years ago?

_I'm so sorry Izuku!_

Fighting back a shudder she turned her attention back to the queue she was now at the head of.

ℋ∑ℛΌℐℭ ȺώᗩҜℰℵĮℕǤ

"So you jumped?"

"Yes."

**TRUTH**

Well this certainly made things difficult. Well … more difficult. Removing his hat from under his arm to on his lap as he had nearly dropped it in his shock.

"Do you have anything to do with the destruction of the building?"

"I don't know."

**TRUTH**

"You don't?"

"I'm not really sure. I might be the reason but I don't remember. I woke up near the school's Koi pond and just sort of … wandered off."

**Truth**

"What happened after that?"

"I think I started walking home, I was a bit fuzzy afterwards, and when I got to an underpass-"

"You were attacked by a sludge villain?"

Izuku startled "How did you know that?"

"All Might reported a few hours ago about his pursuit and assisted capture of a sludge villain by a civilian with an out of control quirk."

"Is he alright?"

"All Might?"

"No- I mean yes him too, he looked like he was steaming before I passed out, but the villain? He was trapped in there with me for a long time and I don't know if he could breathe. Actually I don't know if he respires normally because of his mutation or if he can draw oxygen out of fluids because he didn't seem to have any organs besides his eyes-"

Steaming? "Midoriya-kun?"

"Although I suppose it might've been a transformation quirk? No he would've changed back before he was put in those bottles. But then how does he eat? How do his eyes send signals to his brain? Oh my goodness, what if his body is his br-"

"MIDORIYA-KUN!"

"S-sorry Detective s-sir."

"You were worried for the villain?" asked Naomasa, perplexed.

"W-well of course. H-he could've been seriously hurt when that … when my quirk activated."

Attributing the teens complete lack of self-preservation instincts to whatever had led him to being suicidal, which he made a mental note to look into after this conversation concluded, he instead focused on the apparent surprise.

"Your quirk doesn't normally work like that?"

"I don't normally have a quirk!"

**TRUTH**

"I beg your pardon!" he exclaimed, experiencing surprise of his own.

"Up until today I thought I was quirkless."

**TRUTH**

Realising that his eyebrows were beginning to hurt with how high they had risen, the detective readjusted his expression to something more professional.

"Could you please elaborate?"

After an abridged recounting of the what the doctor had informed him of earlier Tsukauchi made another mental note to follow up on that potential malpractice claim as well.

"Will everything be alright detective? I'm pretty sure the school is covered for accidental quirk damages up to and including total destruction due to the instabilities of quirks during pubert-"

"Considering the extenuating cirumstances," Naomasa interrupted, "There shouldn't be any legal repercussions for you or your family."

Izuku breathed a sigh of relief.

"However."

Which he immediately sucked back in.

"You will have get your quirk registered and I would recommend you see a quirk counsellor to get it properly identified. I would also suggest you seek psychological assistance as well. It should be covered as trauma assistance due to the villain attack you were involved in. You don't have to but it'd be a shame for such an intelligent kid to throw their life a way before it's begun."

Despising how that sounded but moving on to not appear emotionally compromised, the detective moved to the door, replacing his hat upon his head.

"I hope if we meet again it is under more favourable circumstances Midoriya Izuku."

"Me too, sir."

Opening the door and revealing a contemplative Inko seated in the hall, the detective beckoned her in.

Gathering up the to-go container of Katsudon she had procured she made her way back inside.

Reiterating to her that Izuku wasn't in trouble but needed to see a quirk counsellor he took his leave, thoughts of the amount of paperwork that awaited, further dampening his mood.

ℋ∑ℛΌℐℭ ȺώᗩҜℰℵĮℕǤ

That's it for this one. Would go longer but it's very late and, thankfully, cold.  
The statue for malpractice in Japan is 3 years for tort claims and 10 years for contract claims (Not entirely clear on that because tired but there you go).

The drama and angst may have already begun but the horror gets going next chapter.


	4. Straight Lines

Whoever thought up the phrase "come hell or highwater" probably didn't have to experience one after the other with an added risk of contracting galloping knobrot from elsewhere in the world. Flipping 20s plague memes actually got it right. On with this trainwreck.

It could be said that Izuku had a rather biased perspective on medical professionals; perhaps because most medical "professionals" had been quite biased with him.

The vast majority he'd been acquainted with over the years had varied from dismissive and inattentive due to his quirklessness, others had been far too focused on that apparent oddity and glossed over whatever issue he had attempted to bring to their attention. One school nurse among the bunch had treated him quite favourably (in spite of his 'condition') and had built quite the rapport, only to later be dismissed and arrested for being far too interested in boys his age.

That certainly hadn't helped curtail his habit of keeping all of his issues and misgivings to himself.

Two days out of the hospital, one recuperating and the other avoiding sharing more than two sentences with his mother by pretending to still be recuperating, it was time for his first, scheduled, quirk assessment session ...

Something he was alternating between dreading and yearning for, interspersed with the sudden onsets of blank apathy he'd initially worried over but had come to accept and move on from over the years.

He had debated having his mother along for the first appointment but had decided against it not wanting to worry her further, especially if the initial theories he had about his quirk were to be proven accurate.

He chose to ignore his mother's chagrin, hastily concealed by an encouraging expression, and promised to not strain himself at her vehement behest.

The bus and train rides to the facility were, somewhat unnervingly, empty due to the time of day meaning most residents of Musutafu were at work or school.

Upon entering the building and being pointed in the right direction by a thoroughly bored receptionist, who had been juggling several of his own detached ears and dropped a few when Izuku had entered.

Entering the office of Specialist Kensa, a man with very little hair and very many eyes, and sitting in the proffered seat Izuku was finally asked the question he'd been dreading.

"What brings you here today Midoriya-san?" asked the quirk therapist, the eyes where fingernails might usually be blinking in no particular order.

Unused to being addressed on seemingly equal footing by an adult and with his mind brimming with questions about Kensa's quirk Izuku, predictably, stumbled over his first attempt at speech.

After disentangling his tongue and trying, valiantly, not to wilt with embarrassment he tried again, his audience of one, unfazed by his client's nerves.

"For nearly a decade now I thought I was quirkless due to some sort of error in testing or misdiagnosis when I was younger. Three days ago my quirk activated when I was attacked by a villain."

"How?"

"Ahh, pardon me?"

"How did it activate?"

"Uhm, I have a theory but I figured it'd be best to consult before attempting anything drastic."

Intrigued by by this statement Kensa motioned for him to continue.

"Please, walk me through your thought processes."

Perplexed by the adult's apparently genuine curiosity Izuku proceeded.

"I had just entered the underpass and turned at the sound of the manhole cover shifting," looking down and gesturing to his chest, "The sludge villain hit me right at the top of my chest and something in my torso gave way under the force."

Moving his hand higher to his collarbone "The doctor told me that my lung and some of my chest muscles were punctured," replacing his hand in his lap he observed "The villain had no means to pierce my chest so that would suggest that the bones in the area broke in such a way that they pierced the tissues behind them, the only issue is that when I was brought in there was no evidence of such trauma, not even minor fracturing."

Meeting the specialist's gaze he concluded "Because the soft tissue injuries remained but my bones were seemingly intact I believe that my quirk's activation has something to do with my bones, either through breaking or displacement."

Izuku took a breath before he appending "The transformation though I'm a bit less clear on. I do know it was large enough to get stuck in the underpass and I stayed transformed after losing consciousness."

Kensa had been enjoying listening to a fresh perspective not bound by the field specific jargon his colleagues' analyses tended to comprise but that last part demanded his full attention.

"Stayed transformed?"

"Mmhmm, that part had me confused as well. Everything I've read or seen regarding transformation type quirks has them shutting off immediately or petering out shortly afterwards but the ambulance staff had to use quirk suppressants to change me back."

With a few of the eyebrows on his face knitting together the quirk therapist tented his fingers, taking care not to entangle any of the eyelashes around his fingertips.

"That is quite the interesting conundrum," he stated, an eye near his ear glancing towards the novelty shifty-eyed cat clock his husband had bought him as a joke and noting there was still an hour and a half left of the session. Pushing a button on his desk phone he told reception to send a medical staff member to C block's medium testing hall and to bring the orange kit bag as well as the red one.

"If you will please follow me Izuku-san."

* * *

If this was the medium testing hall the large one must be the size of his school Izuku decided, mouth agape at the height of the ceiling. Remembering the current condition of his school dampened his amazement slightly.

Looking like a cross between a dance studio, a factory warehouse and grain silo, with mirrors along one wall and floodlights all but eliminating most of the shadows the hall was quite a spectacle.

After a moment Izuku and Kensa were joined by a very tall, completely fur-covered person wearing white scrubs and blue, elbow-length, rubber gloves, toting red and orange bags, one over each shoulder.

After a brief explanation of the situation by Kensa to the newcomer, who never spoke a word throughout the entire session, they reached into the red bag and brought out a box of plastic cylinders with different coloured lids on each end.

"We'll be using local anaesthetic for this part, how are you with needles?" Asked Kensa.

"Fine" Izuku replied.

"Now since there's no real precedence for this sort of circumstance we'll be using non-invasive methods. Shikaku here will be using an autoinjector on your shoulder and little finger of your non-dominant side to test for dislocation and fracturing with the lowest chance of superfluous injury. Despite their outward appearance their quirk can heal injuries smaller than five centimetres by placing their palm on the area."

Izuku nodded and rolled up the sleeve of his T-shirt, shirt allowing the now named Shikaku to swab his shoulder. Holding Izuku's upper arm in one hand and popping the red cap off the bottom and blue cap off the top using the thumb and pinky of the other (obviously being well practised at doing so) they put their thumb over the top and pointed the bottom tip toward his deltoid muscle. Kensa told Izuku to relax his arm. Izuku complied and a fur-covered hand applied pressure to the device.

With a click, a pinch and a feeling of something moving under his skin, the injector made a sloshy sound. Removing the injector and putting a small fabric plaster over the injection site, that Izuku hadn't even seen them unwrap, the process was repeated on the tip of his left pinky finger with just as much ease.

Recapping both pens and disposing of them in a medical waste container Shikaku turned to Kensa and tilted their head tapping their wrist and holding up five fingers.

After the time had passed and Izuku's localised numbness had been confirmed Shikaku had moved Izuku into a sitting position to achieve the leverage necessary to dislocate his shoulder joint without damaging the surrounds. Looking to Izuku (despite having no visibly obvious eyes) as if asking for permission and receiving a nod in return two large furry paws shifted and the shoulder was free.

…

Nothing happened

...

"Well … guess it's not the disloCAYEEE!"

With a deft movement the shoulder was relocated and Izuku's eye's were wide with confusion.

Staring at the still numb top of his limb, Izuku shuddered.

"That felt really weird and I would like to never have that happen again please."

Kensa, smiling and holding back a chuckle nodded his assent and motioned for the boy to stand back up.

Shikaku meanwhile had reached back into the red bag and brought out a device that looked like an infrared thermometer gun but with a rounded conical tip.

Izuku tilted his head in query of the implement.

"That is an Extracorporeal Shockwave (ESW) gun. Usually used to break up kidney stones but, if calibrated appropriately it can fracture bone without causing severe damage to the tissues in between."

Nodding along at the explanation Izuku held out his hand and extended his numb pinky toward Shikaku.

The furry person put the device to where the tip of his the distal phalanx, then stood back so the device was at arms length, just in case Izuku got really big, really quickly.

Holding up three furry fingers and receiving a determined nod in return they pulled the trigger, sounding a resounding beep.

Izuku's world shifted.

* * *

Is this a motherflipping cliffhanger?

Yeeup.

Sorry people but the cookie's gotta crumble somewhere … that wasn't even a good malaphor.

Fun easter eggs:

Kensa means inspection.

Shikaku is rearranged Kashiku or Kashyyyk and they're basically a Wookie but different (Think of Nagamasa Mora from Shiketsu but taller).

A lot of my joints are utterly banjaxed and work a little funny but my shoulders can just pop out by pushing them in the right spot.

ESW machines are fairly compact now but to make it future-like we'll make it handheld.

Not sure if anaesthetic Autoinjectors are a thing yet but they are here. This is also how Epi-pens are used only with orange instead of red.

To my first and so far only reviewer fencer29

No the story was not rewritten, just changed a few chapter titles to fit the contents a bit better. They're probably all going to be semi-appropriate song titles.

Poor Tsukauchi's probably gonna be back at whatever moment will net him the most paperwork.

Just a heads up, each chapter is written in a single sitting whenever a sudden bout of motivation hits so there could be 3 in one day or nothing for a month (medications allowing) but this won't be abandoned unless my keyboard falls from my cold dead hands.

Inspirations for most forms will become more apparent next chapter. If anyone can pick it from chapter one you get a shoutout and a cookie.


	5. Open the Door, Get on the Floor

Excuses for absence at the end notes. On with the show.

'I have no mouth, so HOW AM I SCREAMING!?'

A high pitched wailing echoed in the large open space of the testing hall followed by the unmistakable sounds of bones and sinew shifting and rearranging in ways they definitely shouldn't.

'Just when I was getting used to having feet again,' bemoaned Izuku as the corresponding appendages retracted into his calves. This feeling was exacerbated when his hands dissolved into his forearms moments later only to be replaced by long bony protrusions that tapered slightly into a pair of long hook-like claws the width of his wrist and extended down to the ground.

A sharp shock of pain between his eyes was his only warning before his vision split in two and his eyes began to travel along his body before coming to rest at his shoulders. Another split and his face opened wide, revealing a third larger eye, shaded by a trio of spikes along his brow.

The flesh of his back and sides began to rend and roil, forming gaps, twists and spikes along his waist and spine. The remainder of his skin shifting texture and colour to an uneven, almost scaly, surface of mottled green crust and leathery, misshapen nodules.

Unbalanced by his sudden lack of feet (or ears for that matter) his instinctive attempt to lean forward to regain equilibrium caused his … Claws? Bone spikes? Mantis hands? Mantis hands to pierce the smooth concrete that made up the ground. On the plus side he was no longer unbalanced, on the negative, he'd just put two divots into the, previously pristine, floor.

Doing his best to look sheepish (as much as a face that is taken up entirely by a gaping eye can), Izuku turned back towards his quirk therapist and medical attendant, his three eyes making contact with several of Kensa's.

"Well that was quite a show!" Kensa exclaimed, the majority of his eyebrows raised.

A chirruping squeal was Izuku's response.

Having worked with deaf and non-verbal people during his education, some quirks leaving few alternatives when it came to communicating, Kensa metered his responses accordingly.

"This is certainly smaller than your explanation described. Is this the same form you took previously?"

Relieved that his accidental property damage seemed to be of little concern Izuku shook his head indicating the negative before adjusting the positioning of his arm spikes, so as not to cause further disrepair.

"You mentioned that your sternum and collar bone were the affected areas in the incident of emergence. Perhaps different bones denote different transformations? Either way more research is needed and we do not have anywhere near enough time left in the session to explore prolonged usage."

Izuku, who had been bouncing slightly in place, either very excited or testing his current level of mobility, lifted one arm spike and waved it to garner attention.

Pointing the limb towards a set of industrial scales, which appeared to be for measuring freight loads, he let out an inquisitive chirrup (From where on his body he was still trying to figure out).

"You believe your mass has changed?"

An affirmative squeak.

Shikaku activated the weighing equipment and Izuku scuttled onto the platform.

"92 Kilograms!" Kenta exclaimed, "Quite the weight gain for a rather scrawny middle schooler."

Whether the jibe registered with Izuku was anyone's guess as the smooth back of his right claw had found its way under his chin and quiet, high-pitched buzzing could be heard.

Deciding to wait and see how long this apparent rumination could go Kensa and Shikaku were surprised to see it come to a sudden stop as Izuku suddenly bent his knees and leapt clear over them, landing softly, if somewhat gracelessly, behind them.

Raising both arms and screeching shrilly in celebration he promptly forgot about his apparent lack of feet and fell to the floor.

At least that's how he experienced it.

* * *

4 days later Izuku found himself sweating profusely, legs screaming and a stitch the size of Yokohama begging him to cease this torturous act immediately.

Having only jogged less than a kilometre down the road from home this was a testament to his distinct lack of physical fitness.

Following his second counselling session Shikaku had relayed through Kensa the message that Izuku would need far more stamina if he was going to utilise certain aspects of his quirk, much less get into a competent hero school.

Kensa's followup advice of starting small with exercise and working his way up to further goals was looking much more appealing, however Izuku's mindset refused to take things so slow. He had 10 years of catching up to do in 10 months which meant he'd have to work 10 times harder.

2 days, 3 torn muscles and a not insignificant reprimanding from his mother Izuku decided it was probably better to try the incremental approach with some minor plus ultra-ing when he felt he could get away with it.

Experimenting with his quirk's transformations at a nearby beach/garbage dump, which he resolved to clean up parts of if he had spare time, had revealed that his bones would revert back to their original state after his transformations ended. It had also revealed, by accident, a way force to a reversion to his base form which he had staunchly refused to talk about.

Practising transformations into different forms had left him with a greater appreciation of his standard physique as well as greater proprioception. He'd noticed himself tripping less, and one time he'd even caught a pencil he'd knocked off of his desk before it hit the ground.

Unfortunately even that amount of noise had drawn Kacc- Bakugou's ire.

School had reopened astonishingly quickly, considering that amount of damage it had incurred, which meant being in proximity to what, or should he say who, had inspired such a drastic change in his life. Thankfully his genuine brushes with death had left his one time friend's threats of violence/dismemberment/exploding/etc. lacking the usual flight response.

That may have been partially due to the anti-depressants his psychologist had prescribed him after his abridged explanation of his long trip off of a short rooftop.

"DEKU YOU DAMNED SHIT WEASEL, QUIT BEING SO ANNOYING IN CLASS!"

"Mmhmm," answered Izuku.

"OF COURSE YOU CAN'T YOUR ENTIRE FUCKING EXISTENCE IS ANNOYING!"

"Mmhmm," answered Izuku

"ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME YOU GREEN MOUSE TURD‽"

"Mmhmm," answered Izuku, somewhat impressed by Bakugou's ability to enunciate an interrobang.

Bakugou narrowed his eyes further than usual.

"The fuck's got into you damn nerd?"

"Mmhmm," answered Izuku.

Hands alight with sparks, Bakugou slammed his palm on Izuku's desk, not caring for scorch marks left behind.

"LOOK AT ME WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU, YOU INEFFECTUAL SHRUB!"

'There's a 500 Yen word, can we get a thousand?' mused Izuku, staring blankly at the soot left on his desk he's have to clean off next time he was on cleaning duty because everyone refused to do his desk when it was their turn.

Reaching for Izuku's shirt collar Bakugou screamed "DEKU-!" before being cut off by the bell signalling the end of lunch.

Having become more deft at moving through crowds thanks to his somewhat improved self-awareness Izuku managed to avoid further antagonising from Bakugou after classes let out by fleeing the instant the final bow of the day had been announced by the class president.

* * *

After much blood, sweat, tears and unidentifiable glowing fluids had been shed, the 10 months had come and gone faster than a caped man in yellow spandex hunting for sales. Looking back on his journey, Izuku felt both over and underwhelmed by his current state of standing in front of UA's enormous entrance gates.

'Wonder if it's too late to go back to the train station and hope a villain squashes me-'

"MOVE OVER ASSMUNCH!"

'Oh yeah, forgot he'd be here.' thought Izuku, shifting to the side, seemingly automatically, allowing a familiar, explosive blonde to pass by.

'I should be heading in but my limbs seem not to be getting the message.'

"Hey are you alright? You're here for the hero test right? You should probably head in yeah?"

Unused to such cheerful zeal being directed at him Izuku's eyes were the only part of him that moved to the pink cheeked, bob haircut that seemed to be attempting to usher him towards the testing auditorium.

Jolting suddenly back into full awareness, his neck audibly cracking at the speed his head turned towards the girl, Izuku tried to form a smile and attempted to nod.

With a grimace and odd sort of jerky head tilt, Izuku began to progress to where the girl was pointing with a stilted, shambling gait which seemed like it would be rather painful to attempt with normal joints.

As such it certainly was quite painful and Izuku settled into a less unnerving method of walking shortly after leaving the sight of the girl that had woken him from his nervous funk.

Finding the seating section for his school, seeing Bakugou seated there and choosing to sit in the aisle instead Izuku settled in to wait for the introduction to begin.

"**WHAT IS UP LITTLE LISTENERS, WELCOME TO UA HEROIC'S TEST, YEAAAAH!**"

Dead silence echoed through the room.

"**Heh … ARE YOU READY TO FIND OUT WHAT YOU'LL BE UP AGAINST?**"

Somehow the room became even more quiet.

A loud yet concise explanation about disabling robots, for points, in a city followed interrupted only by a bespectacled boy with questions about an unexplained 4th automaton and the construction quality of the facilities due to peculiar creaking sounds coming from the aisle staircase.

* * *

One bus ride later and a group of teenagers of all shapes and size gathered in front of a colossal mock cityscape which could surely house a few thousand people if the infrastructure and utilities were functional.

Spotting the girl he had likely unnerved earlier Izuku debated whether he should attempt to quell her unease with an apology and well wishes of good luck in the upcoming fracas. His decision was made for him when glasses boy nominated him as the source of the creaking and made to castigate him for causing distractions.

Thankfully he was saved by the cacophonous announcement that it was time to "**START!**"

High strung as he was already Izuku bolted through the crowd for the entrance, grabbed hold of his right wrist in his left fist and twisted it as hard as he could.

A low pop, a short pain and a familiar rearrangement of body parts later, gone was Izuku and in his place was a bipedal, green and black, reptilian creature with side-facing eyes, large horns, large claws, and large teeth.

All of the above accoutrements found themselves buried in a nearby robot that had wandered closer to investigate the bone-crunchy noises and instead found itself in 2 pieces to match the number emblazoned on its side.

A heavyset tail took care of a one pointer that had followed the ruckus and the mini missiles of a three pointer detonated on the chitinous crown of the beasts head doing little other than creating smoke for the Midoriyasaurus to leap through and crush it under 2 and a half tonnes of pseudo-lizard.

Izuku both loved and loathed this form as it only involved a bit of growth and shifting with very few disappearing extremities.

The problem is that it tended to tear apart a lot of shirts if he forgot to remove them before initiating it.

* * *

A short while away in a dark room filled with screens, a group of observers commented about great initiative and how odd it was to see a hulking monstrosity wearing teal track shorts.

* * *

After racking up a few more points and utilising his armoured bulk to take the brunt of a few projectile volleys that would have otherwise hurt other examinees who had priorities that didn't include exploding, Izuku huffed a growl of fatigue.

He had discovered early on in his experimentation that larger forms burned through his stamina like the fossil fuel engines of the pre-quirk era; The bigger they are the quicker guzzle up his vitality.

Shunted from his thoughts by a sudden quaking of the ground below him foretold the coming of an absolute behemoth of a robot.

Clearly this animate skyscraper was the 'Arena Hazard.'

Deciding that being crushed by multi-storey tank treads was not a way he wanted to go Izuku turned to depart but was stopped by a groan of pain emanating from the path of the metal madness trundling towards him.

Aborting his escape and, against several instincts that should be urging him otherwise, ran headlong towards the sound.

Catching a glimpse of one human shape caught under debris in his forward peripheral vision and another in his rear peripheral vision Izuku made a split-second decision.

Shifting the debris with well-applied force from his tail Izuku mentally apologised for his next course of action to the figure, whom he now recognised as the bob haircut girl who'd been messing with the laws of physics throughout the test.

With the gentleness of a mother crocodile shifting her eggs Izuku picked up the girl in his jaws and with a calculated flicking motion, threw her through the air at the, now also recognised glasses boy, with remarkable precision.

Thankful he hadn't torn her outfit much Izuku turned his gaze back to the encroaching doom to gauge if he could make it out of the way in time.

Only to be crushed by a fist the size of a shipping container.

* * *

Going to have to stop ending these with cliffhangers or the effect's gonna stop being … effective.

Health took a massive dive, motivation went with it. Currently writing this at 10 past 5 in the morning because even more new meds stuffing about with sleep and internal workings.

Not much to say except for how this feels kinda rushed and writing is definitely not my forte but who else is gonna write this wumble.

The inspirations for the transformations will become a lot more obvious next chapter. Would try to draw Mantis Imp Izuku or Midoriyasaurus but big surprise, can't draw for cashews either.

Big time jump will have a few flashbacks to make context so Izuku isn't just pulling things out of a fundamental orifice.

There will be body horror later on.

Maybe mild, maybe worse, not sure, perspective's a bit skewed

WouldYouKidnapA: Gonna have to be a teasey bitch a bit longer but there will be lots of broken bones and interesting consequences.

**Wash your hands, don't panic buy toilet paper, be safe, try not to kill anyone.**


	6. Don't You Go Out in the Rain

Let's just jump into it. **(Updated*)**

"Oh, dear," mused a high pitched voice.

"OH DEAR!? A kid gets squashed by a giant metal monstrosity, on our watch I might add, and all you have to say is 'Oh dear?'" came an aggravated response from a scraggly man half-in, half-out of a large yellow sleeping bag.

"I'm afraid the pause button was out of reach of my *ahem* paws. From what I'd ascertained from his file I assumed he'd be sturdier than this, howev-"

The monitoring room shook suddenly and violently, knocking papers and a half-filled coffee pot onto the floor.

"Hmm, perhaps we've spoken too soon?"

* * *

A certain bespectacled male, holding a rather queasy female, were struck with amazement and horror at the apparent sacrifice of the creaky transforming boy.

The dead silence following the impact was shattered shortly after by brief human-sounding shout of pain, the clattering of shifting debris and jarring, shuddering CRACK.

The titanic machine's fist shunted abruptly to the side, displaced by an equally large, shifting mass of off-white bone.

The Zero-pointer managed to retain its balance in spite of the dramatic change to it's limb placement, only to have the majority of said limb crushed and torn by a newly constituted clawed appendage the size of a draught horse, made entirely of bone.

With a lustre of polished ceramic, rattling and clacking as each segment shifted and settled, exposed sinew stretching between each joint, an arm the length and breadth of large oak tree had sprung from the rubble and torn a great rent in the robot's forearm.

The cracking had been certainly been loud but the roar that erupted from beneath shook the squishy internals of all nearby and sent deep shivers through the spines of all who heard it (those who had spines that is).

Coincidentally, what emerged next from the pit was a snaking form of vertebral segments, the largest dwarfing a human torso, diminishing in size but spanning an extraordinary distance, terminating in a whip-like formation at one end, the other still below.

Three limbs, identical in bulk and reach to the first, rose from the crumbling concrete, attached at growths along the column that could charitably be referred to as an artist's rendition of a pelvis and rib-cage if the artist was using their non-dominant hand and had spent an afternoon inhaling benzene fumes.

The roaring continued, undeterred by such trivialities as an apparent lack of lungs as it the sound seemed to be coming from the bones themselves.

With a hefty show of force and a shower of dislodged asphalt an enormous reptilian skull emerged, which onlookers would later describe as a cross between a T-rex and an angler fish, only to be corrected by the head of an irate, greenette and dinosaur aficionado, saying it shared more similarities with an Allosaurus skull.

Regardless of the what extinct creature it resembled its teeth were very large, very prominent, and very much about to clamp down on the face of the oversized gimmick robot.

With a resounding, and somewhat satisfying, CRUNCH the 'head' of the robot was met with both sides of a very strong pair of jaws which, as jaws do, crushed the main processing unit of the behemoth, effectively disabling any further function.

As swiftly and abruptly as the fracas had begun, it ceased.

All movement from the colossal skeleton ceased and it's towering form hung in the air above its defeated foe, swayed briefly to one side and collapsed, falling to one side, each joint coming apart, hundreds of bones raining down in a calcified, clattering, cacophony.

The shadowed internals of the fallen creature's rib cage lit up with brilliant, sulphurous, deep-blue flames before dispersing and revealing the battered, blood-covered, near-naked body of Midoriya Izuku.

* * *

"PROTECT THE GRAIL!" Izuku exclaimed as he awoke.

"You mean the girl?" asked an aged voice.

"No. I mean yes? I mean … where am I?"

Izuku stopped and took in his surroundings.

He was sitting on a hospital cot … again, but the arrangement was different to what he was used to and there was a little old lady sitt-

"THE YOUTHFUL HERO, RECOVERY GIRL!?"

"You don't have to yell dear, I may not be as youthful as I once was but I can still hear you just fine."

"S-sorry. Uhm, what happened?"

"What do you last remember?"

"Uhh. There were a lot of robots, I was hunti- err disabling them. Then there was a packmate injury shout? Erm, a cry of pain from a girl. Uhm. Sorry. I'm scrambled. Adjusting back to this me."

"Take your time dear."

"The girl was hurt and there was a big threat to all pa- all the people in the area, but she was the closest to it so I got her out of there."

"And then?"

"Then I got squashed again."

"Again!?"

"Then I had to protect … protect. Protect some kind of key to below from … No that's not right. Uhm. OH! Yes. I was bigger than usual and had to prevent the threat from hurting anyone else. I stopped it and then I ran out of energy."

"..."

"Was anyone else hurt?"

"Hmm. No, no one else was foolhardy enough take on a foe they wouldn't typically be able to best."

"Oh thank goodness." Izuku sagged back onto the thin mattress, looking as exhausted as he felt.

Recovery girl stared at him with a pensive expression, seeming to be mulling over whether to press further about the red flags he'd raised but Izuku's face crinkling up with obvious pain pushed those matters to the side.

"You're understandably sore, Midoriya-kun. Your lower back and pelvic area displayed signs of crush injuries, despite your bones being completely intact. As such I was able to heal most of the tissue damage, somewhat more than I was expecting, but you'll still be leaving here on crutches. The medical brief from your file suggests you are not unfamiliar with such injuries and that this is not an abnormality for you?"

"Yes. My bones revert back to a baseline of the shape they were in before breaking but any non-skeletal injuries incurred are retained in a kind of stasis until the transformation ends."

"You were also showing symptoms of acute starvation in spite of your organs and musculature appearing to be in excellent health."

"I ran out of energy."

"Oh you meant that literally. But that would mean-"

"Yeah … it's one of the only ways to deactivate my quirk once it's in use and the only one that's reliably consistent."

"Good heavens ..."

"It's fine."

"I'd like to run some tests-"

"It's fine." he repeated. 'There's already some pending bloodwork in my file that keeps coming up inconclusive but you're welcome to try your own."

"Indeed. Well here at UA we have greater access to fringe technologies and experts so we'll see if we can't find a solution to this."

"Wait. Don't I have to be accepted first? What if I didn't pass?"

"No need to worry dear. I'm sure you did fine."

"But-"

"Have some gummies, you need to build your energy back up."

Izuku realised that he did feel more fatigued than normal and, as such, complied.

* * *

A week after leaving Recovery Girl's office, with strict orders to go easy on his groin muscles which left him a stammering mess, Izuku returned home from a day of muddling through schoolwork, avoiding Bakugou and helping a scarred, blonde stranger on the train retrieve a very tight hat.

Finishing off his homework and a light jog (which may have been several laps of the beach he had begun to tidy up) his mother burst into the room clutching a fairly thick envelope.

"IT'S HERE!" she proclaimed loudly even though she was within arms reach of him.

With his eyebrows disappearing into his fringe he gently took the letter with the same level of care one would a live grenade.

Ironically it fell from his hands briefly before he caught it again.

Retreating to the darkened sanctuary of his room, faint light emitted by the glow in the dark teeth of a limited edition All Might poster letting him find his desk chair in the gloom.

Deciding the answer wouldn't change regardless of how long he sat there contemplating it (though he had been for several minutes already) he unsealed it with a novelty, Edgeshot, kunai-shaped letter opener and tipped the contents onto his desk.

*Clunk*

'Clunk?'

A puck-like holo-projector began its prerecorded message.

"**I AM HERE TO ANNOUNCE YOUR UA ENTRANCE EXAM RESULTS, IN STYLE!**" announced a yellow-suited hologram of the number one hero.

'What is All Might doing in a message from UA'

"**YOU MIGHT BE WONDERING WHAT I'M DOING IN ****A**** MESSAGE FROM UA!**"

'...'

"**I HAVE DECIDED TO PASS ON MY KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE AS A PRO-HERO TO THE NEXT GENERATION, AS OTHERS HAVE BEFORE ME!**"

'Oh.'

"**I H- what? Get on with it? Thirty eight!? I see. *AHEM* MIDORIYA IZUKU! YOUR RESULTS ARE AS FOLLOWS. Gee that name sounds familiar. IN THE WRITTEN EXAM YOU PERFORMED EXEMPLARILY ****WI- what do you mean that isn't a word? Whatever. YOU SCORED 4****TH**** OVERALL. CONGRATULATIONS!**"

By this point Izuku realised he'd been biting onto his index finger rather strongly and that his eyebrows were aching. Relaxing both he refocused his attention.

"**NOW FOR THE PRACTICAL EXAM YOU SCORED 34 VILLAIN POINTS, A DECENT SHOWING BUT THAT ISN'T ALL! DIRECT YOUR ATTENTION THUSLY!**"

The footage cut to Present Mic in a classroom with a small cluster of teens assembled in front of him.

"Excusing me please Mr. Microphone, I am polite requesting if green hair boy is okay." asked a horned blonde in fragmented Japanese.

"Me too," came the voice of the girl he'd saved. "He might've ruined my workout jacket but he saved my life."

Izuku's Standard Level of GuiltTM rose from it's usual 6 to an 8.

"His quick and efficient actions, though crude, did indeed save her!"

"The boy of boucles vertes rendered mois a great assistance."

"I hate to admit it but he saved my ass out there"

The footage cut back to All Might after the exhausted looking, purple-haired boy's confirmation.

"**AS YOU CAN SEE, YOUNG MIDORIYA, YOUR SELFLESS ACTS THROUGHOUT THE EXAM HAD POSITIVE EFFECTS ON YOUR FELLOW EXAMINEES!**"

Izuku's SLoGtm decreased to 4 and something approaching feelings of self esteem grew buds in a barren wasteland.

"**AN ACADEMY TRAINING HEROES WOULDN'T ALLOW THIS TO GO UNRECOGNISED! THEREFORE ...**"

An extra column appeared on the scoreboard labelled-

"**RESCUE POINTS ARE AWARDED!**"

Searching the list for his name from the bottom up Izuku's jaw hit the desk when he reached the top spot in red.

[1] [Izuku Midoriya] [Villain Points 34] [Rescue Points 45]

The shocked elation abruptly turned to horror as he looked at the next entry in orange.

[2] [Bakugou Katsuki] [Villain Points 77] [Rescue Points 0]

He'd scored higher than Bakugou …

He was dead meat.

* * *

A bit shorter this time because writing is still not my forte.

No this is not a crossover with the Fate series, there are grails, goblets and other fancy drinkware in other media.

The bigass skelly-bones creature might be a huge clue for anyone searching for some connection between Izuku's forms.

Can't keep many more secrets after next chapter. After all, you can't escape the grasp of RATIONALITY … or logic depending on your translation.

SentinalSlice – Indubitably and well reasoned. Funnily enough there might be a special form in the brainstorm for that particular metatarsal phalanx.

Fredgie – Your name conjures many entertaining mental images and is fun to say. My apologies for the brevity of these chapters, something in me is just really averse to putting together large amounts of words that aren't shaggy dog stories or speculation of how fictional mumbo jumbo could be rationalised and where all the pros and cons lie.

Have about six or seven, multipage phone notes about quirk ideas to explore for Izuku that integrate folklore, biology, name puns/spellings/symbols, required secondary attributes and how they affect daily life.

Might post a few of those and see if they can become more.

***Y'all are excellent and noticed the score discrepancy. Would love to claim it as a late april fools joke but it's just author incompetence. The villain points were decided by RNG and an attempt to make interesting number combinations. Originally he was only going to have 18 villain points (his seat number) and the original 60 rescue points but that seemed iffy. Then it was going to be 42 and 35 (7s) but that would make a tie. Asked google RNG for a number between 18 and 42, got 34, forgot to change the rescues. While we're here might edit a booboo in chapter 5.**

Hope to see you all next chapter.


	7. Fight the Fear

This might've been out sooner but my OS bit the bucket. ONWARDS!

His teacher must really hate him.

Izuku was no stranger to being held after class, what with the number of incidents and "accidents" he was involved in throughout the years, but this time was a definite change of pace.

"Not one, but two of my students matriculating to UA high? Surely this is a miracle or a dream come true. Especially in your case Midoriya."

Izuku was certain that with how loudly he was internally screaming he would go deaf in the near future. Or was that because Katsuki was going blow his head up? Either way he felt an omen of misfortune hanging over him.

Taking a hefty risk he shifted his eyes to and from the blonde bomber as quickly and surreptitiously as he could.

Bakugou must have a secondary, intimidation, quirk because the murderous aura emanating from him could be felt, smelt and tasted in the air.

After being dismissed a cold shiver ran up Izuku's spine as he approached the staircase leading to the entrance.

On a whim he decided he'd prefer to live to make it to UA and took a short detour … out the window of an empty classroom and up one of the trees either side of entrance gate.

He remained there for three quarters of an hour until he witnessed Bakugou storm off, having been unable to find him.

As an extra precaution, Izuku took another short detour on his way home.

Three adjacent wards, five dark alleys and the donation of a box cutter to a girl trying to open the packaging of another box cutter later, and Izuku finally made it home in time for dinner.

* * *

A month later the start of a new term had come to pass and Izuku was struggling with the tie of his crisp new UA uniform.

Despite having tried the whole thing on as soon as he'd received it and getting used to the fit (wearing it around the house and trying not to blush when his mother saw him doing poses in it) he still couldn't get the ratio of knot to cloth length right.

Deciding he could work on it further before class he gather up his bag and raced to the front door, more than a little eager to begin his tenure as a hero hopeful.

"Izuku."

"Have to hurry or I'll be late," he said offhandedly to his mother.

"Izuku!"

"Yeah!?"

He turned to see his mother with tears in her eyes.

"I'm … I'm so proud of you," she spoke, voice cracking slightly.

Pausing to absorb her words his lips trembled into a wobbly smile.

"Thank you," he murmured before giving her a brief embrace.

Slipping his shoes on and glancing back at his mother Izuku shut the door behind him.

"Y-you can be a h-hero I-Izuku," Inko whispered to the silence, tears spilling down her cheeks.

* * *

Finding the 1A classroom was both easier and more difficult than it likely should have been.

Izuku had asked a trio of upperclassmen for directions and had received a dour expression, several return questions and overly enthusiastic directions that required knowledge of monument he didn't know the locations of anyway.

By a happy mistake he had turned down the next hallway and ended up in front of a very large door emblazoned with signage he'd been seeking.

Pausing from the sudden commotion from within, Izuku mustered up every ounce of stealth he could scrounge and gently slid the door open-

"Oh hey it's you!"

Only to slam it open fully with an echoing crash in response to the sudden voice behind him, a strange peep sound emanating from somewhere in his throat.

Having, quite effectively, drawn the attention of everyone present in the classroom, a purple haired girl in the second row glaring at him and rubbing her ears, Izuku was quite ready to enter panic and flee mode when the voice made themselves known again.

"Sorry for startling you."

It was the girl he had sav- almost bitten in hal- whose shirt he'd ruined.

"SORRY FOR BITE SHIRT!" he announced intelligently.

"Don't worry about the shirt, you saved me from bein' mush."

Izuku's reply was to blush madly and cover his face.

His thoughts realigning to their previous focus of the room's ruckus Izuku became aware that another had approached him.

"You are the indecorous, creaking, giant-reptile boy who saw through to the ulterior purpose of the exam‽" spoke the tall bespectacled boy.

"Uhm?"

"I must apologise for my actions outside ground beta!" he expounded, chopping one hand down through the air into the other.

Unable to comprehend the current positive attention he was receiving Izuku's attention shifted to the large, puffy, yellow thing on the floor behind him that was glaring up at them with bloodshot eyes.

"Socialising stops when the bell rings." it spoke, punctuated by the school bell.

The class' attention now redirected away from him and on to the prone speaker, Izuku relaxed one fear response and engaged another, backing away from the entrance door, unconsciously dragging the other two with him towards the front desk.

The sleeping bag on the floor unzipped and a tall, tired, teacher arose from it.

"At least you can all be quiet when the time calls for it."

Stooping back down and reaching into his portable sleep aid, he withdrew a stack of dark blue and white uniforms.

"I'm your homeroom teacher, Aizawa Shota, Put these one and meet me at the field outside."

* * *

Having become rather proficient in undressing and redressing quickly due to his quirk Izuku was one of the first on the field.

This gave him plenty of time to observe and study his new classmates, as they filed out of the changing rooms, as well as his teacher, whose stance, outfit and demeanour seemed to raise several flags in his memory.

"This will be a quirk assessment. We need a baseline for your current limits in order to correct and improve your performances and give you the best chances at surviving in the pro-hero career," Aizawa declared once everyone had gathered.

"What about orienta-"

"We don't have time for such frivolities. It's going to take all the time we can give you to get you all trained and, hopefully, ready."

'This is a really no-nonsense teaching method,' thought Izuku, impressed.

"You've all taken these physical fitness tests throughout middle school but this time you'll be using your quirks."

An excited murmuring spread throughout the class.

"Midoriya!"

"Y-yes?"

"You scored at the top of the Physical exam."

Growling and popping noises erupted from somewhere to Izuku's left.

"Y-yeah?"

"What's your softball throw record?"

"Fifty one and a half metres."

"Try now using your quirk. Just stay inside the circle."

Upon taking his place Izuku held up the ball in front of him as if pondering its mysteries.

"Sometime today please Midoriya."

Izuku snapped back to reality and nodded at Aizawa before placing the ball on the ground, earning himself a raised eyebrow and number of confused whispers.

Taking off his left shoe and sock Izuku rotated his foot until the tops of his toes were on the ground.

Without any other warning he put all of his weight on the one foot, bending it entirely in half, like a closed fist, with a wet sounding CRUNCH.

Aizawa's other eyebrow rose in alarm and a number of Izuku's classmates vocalised in worry, fear or disgust.

Izuku's muscles bulged, his skin changed to an ashen grey and his hair receded into his scalp.

Murmurs of curiosity and horror replaced some of the disgust as his mouth opened into a wide, sharp toothed triangle that encompassed where his nose once was.

Two walrus-like, striped tusks descended from his jaw and a two more sprouted from his lower rib cage, tearing holes where they broke through his shirt.

His eyes, now small slits below his brow, blinked horizontally with a see-through membrane before focusing back downwards on the discarded softball.

The humanoid retrieved the ball and gave it a testing squeeze.

Nodding, as if satisfied with the material, it placed the ball into its mouth and curled its body inward.

An electric sounding crackle and a dim green glow displayed before it unfurled its body and entire face.

A small explosion and a beam of light erupted from its jaws and sent the ball flying into the distance.

Aizawa, only slightly perturbed by the scene he had just witnessed, brought up the testing meter display and gave a non-committal grunt at the result before showing it to the class.

**345m**

"Wow"

"Not bad"

"This looks like fun!"

"**DEKUUUUUUU!**"

Considering the unsettling form Izuku currently had it was an odd thing to behold such a creature jump in fright and cower.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS YOU LYING SHITTY FUCK-KNUCKLE!?"

Making it only a quarter of the way to Izuku before he was ensnared by grey cloth, Bakugou abruptly stopped foaming at the mouth in incoherent rage to question why Izuku wasn't exploded.

Hair floating and eyes glowing red, Aizawa had restrained Katsuki, seemingly with minimal effort and from the furrow of his brow he was not happy.

"I don't care what sort of petty quarrels you might have. You're here to learn to be heroes. Act like it!"

A high pitched growling sort of warble from the Izuku creature who suddenly appeared excited and was pointing and gesturing at Aizawa.

Everyone else simultaneously blinked twice at the display.

Realising he couldn't be understood the Izuku creature began pantomiming gestures of glasses while pointing at his neck, writing and erasing something, then pointing at his own head.

Glancing around he saw that only a large rock-headed boy seemed to be even trying to interpret his message.

Aizawa merely disentangled Bakugou with a mild glare and instructed Izuku to change back.

Izuku's head that had sunk in despondence sprang back up in a nod.

Meandering to the back of the crowd and disappearing behind the locker rooms, another shiver-inducing CRUNCH echoed, followed by a thud of something hitting the ground, a FWOOSH of something bursting into flame and a flash of cyan light.

Reappearing from behind the building and despite a pair of holes in his shirt Izuku seemed no worse for wear.

"YOU'RE THE ERASURE HERO: ERASERHEAD!" he excitedly exclaimed.

"Who?"

"Wait really?"

"I've definitely heard of him"

"He's super underground."

"You can Erase people's quirks by looking at them!" iterated the hero fanboy.

"Hmm, you're well informed. Regardless, you all need to focus on what's important. Therefore, whoever gets the lowest combined score, I'll expel immediately."

The collective yell of shock diffused the air excitement.

* * *

"A-Aizawa sensei?"

"Hmm?"

"C-could I ask you a question p-privately?"

"…" Shota sighed, "Fine."

He instructed the class to get stretching and walked a short distance away with Izuku in tow.

"What's up kid?"

"C-could you please use your quirk on me b-between events?"

"What for?"

"I .. uh. I don't …"

"Spit it out."

"I can't turn off my quirk!"

Aizawa raised a brow again before narrowing his eyes.

"So the old lady was telling the truth?"

"Wha- oh you mean recovery Girl?"

Giving Izuku a calculating look he asked another question.

"So how did you transform back just now?"

Looking at the ground and swallowing nervously Izuku wrapped his arms around his torso.

"There are only three ways I know for my transformations to end. Quirk suppressants, running out of energy, and …"

"And the death of the transformation," Aizawa finished grimly.

Izuku nodded.

"I," Izuku began.

"I think there might be something wrong with it … my quirk."

Sighing again Aizawa simply stood there in a contemplative silence.

"Well we can't do much about it right this second … get back to the others. We'll see how this goes."

Nodding his agreement Izuku made his way back to the group, missing two sets of eyes following his return.

Huffing in frustration Aizawa mumbled to himself "Problem child."

* * *

Izuku performed decently well in the rest of the tests.

For the 50m run he bent his left elbow the wrong way and shifted into a somewhat feminine, furred, feline humanoid with digitigrade rear limbs, large ears and a tail, scoring 4.4 seconds

A short boy with purple balls for hair didn't stop ogling him until he was changed back by Aizawa, leaving Izuku feeling vastly uncomfortable near him.

Twisting his wrist again for the grip test, Izuku put the machine in his mouth and accidentally crushed it as he shifted.

Breaking his left middle finger for the standing long jump saw Izuku becoming an unsightly one eyed wasp creature the colour and texture of an aggravated scab that buzzed slowly and clumsily over the sand pit

The cat-like form made a reappearance for the side jumps which where performed on all fours as before.

Izuku made sure not to look anywhere near the grape haired one.

Having already performed the ball throw and preferring not to be leered at a third time he snapped his foot again and executed a surprisingly fast crawl as the tusked, triangle-face for the 1500m endurance run.

For the toe touch and situps Izuku wrenched back his right index and middle fingers and morphed into a three clawed dark green variant of his first intentional transformation, with a larger hole in its torso and with its head apparently alight with lime green flame.

The claws made for a farther reach and the natural flexibility of the form made both tests a breeze.

His efforts netted him a highly respectable fifth place, behind the glasses boy he'd learnt was named Iida Tenya.

Shifting his view to the bottom score on the count and feeling slightly guilty at the relief that washed through him.

"Mineta Minoru, congratulations."

The boy looked up with the barest amount of hope in his expression.

"Get your stuff out of the changing rooms and go to the principal's office. You're expelled from the hero course."

* * *

**So long eh grape boy!** _Hammer throws Mineta into Bakugou._

Was debating back and forth if he should stay in or no and decided he has little bearing on the plot at large anyway. Sorry if you like him or wanted him to stay but there's only so much tolerance for abusive characters my tiny heart can take and there's still so much Explodo and Burning man to write.

A few more forms revealed and bit more of Izuku's quirk's drawbacks shown.

Certainly a few BNHA fandom specific tropes at play and a few others that won't make sense without more context. Maybe some of you smart cookies have already figured out the correlations for his transformations.

If the Battle test doesn't make it easier then the USJ certainly will.

Longest chapter yet for this doover. Hope to one day have enough energy, imagination and motivation to write a whole 10,000 word chapter in the far off future.

Stay home, stay safe, stay frosty.

P.S if you find any flubs in this one, PM me.


	8. With the World At Our Feet

Long gap, explanation after story, on with the chapter.

"Y-YOU CAN'T DO THAT! I EARNED MY PLA-."

"Surely this punishment is too harsh?"

"He wasn't bluffing? I could've sworn-"

"Good riddance. I could feel his eyes on my-"

"Enough!" growled Aizawa, barely raising his voice, his glowing-eyed glare and floating hair intensifying his words and ensuring a dead silence.

Focusing solely on the diminutive grape-head, his glare was replaced by the expression of resigned exhaustion the teens had already begun to believe was his face's default.

"Your performances, here and during the practical exam, have been extremely lacklustre. The majority of your time, then and now, has been spent either doing the bare minimum and ogling your potential future classmates. Any rescue points you would have scored had to be deducted after we received no fewer than 7 complaints of harassment, before, during and after the exams, each corroborated by video footage. Are these the endeavours of an aspiring hero?"

With each word the boy's face fell.

"B-but-"

"But nothing. Your behaviour is irrational and you will not be part of this class."

"I-"

"The rest of you, pick up a copy of your syllabus back in the classroom."

Not wanting to draw the ire of their intimidating homeroom teacher, the 19 hero hopefuls headed for the changing rooms.

"Midoriya!"

"_YIPE_\- I mean, uh Yes Aizawa Sensei?"

"Go see Recovery Girl when you're finished."

"I- h-how?"

"Just do it."

* * *

Once the various contusions, pulled muscles and torn ligaments from all the fractures, breaks and hyper-extensions had been healed up by a quick kiss and a mild lecture from Recovery Girl, Izuku made his way towards UA's entrance, seemingly no worse for wear in spite of the stamina drain associated with the nurse's quirk.

A hand descending on his shoulder, albeit gently, drew yet another squeak of fright from the greenette and a loquaciously sincere apology from a surprised Iida.

"Are you well Midoriya san? Free of injuries?"

"Ahh, yes Iida k-kun. No need to worry," Izuku reassured, hand held up in a placating manner.

"That is certainly good to hear. That business with Aizawa sensei and that Mineta boy has left me somewhat disquieted."

"Uhh, I see," answered Izuku, the formal language Iida used leaving him somewhat disquieted as well.

"HEY YOU TWO! WAIT UP!"

Both turning as one towards the familiar voice addressing them, they were met with the sight of the brunette whom he'd thrown with his mou- whose shirt he'd rui- who had scored an actual infinity during the ball throw.

"You're the girl who scored an infinity during the ball throw!" exclaimed Iida.

Izuku blinked.

"I'm Uraraka Ochako." she declared with enthusiasm. "You're Iida Tenya kun and you're Midoriya … Deku right?"

Izuku's face darkened.

"Uh … no. It-it's Midoriya Izuku" he clarified, his bottom lip twitching slightly.

"It is? But the explody guy-"

"Bakugou calls me that because it means useless, good for nothing."

"… Oh. Um. I thought it sounded like Dekiru/Can do."

"Heh. I-it's a lovely sentiment."

"You seem unenthused Midoriya kun," Iida interjected "Should we, perhaps, refrain from addressing you as such?"

"N-no, you can call me whatever, really" he refuted, unconvincingly.

"Uhh, well. Let's head to the station?" Uraraka ventured, hoping to change the subject to something less dour.

"S-sure," Izuku agreed, thankful for the out.

As the trio meandered towards the station Izuku suddenly spoke up.

"Uraraka san, I've been meaning to ask about your quirk!" he said, with no trace of a stutter.

"Oh! Sure. Ask away," she obliged, her bubbly tone returning.

"It's terrifying! What do you call it?"

"Eh? Uh, Zero Gravity. Why is it terrifying?"

"Gravity? Hmm, no that can't be it. If gravity was suddenly removed, whatever it affected would either fly off into space or crash to the ground at whatever relative speed the earth was moving through space. Maybe something to do with inertial suppression? No that doesn't account for the robots during the exam were displaying atypical air displacement."

Uraraka and Iida paused and stared curiously at Izuku's musings.

"The ball didn't decelerate after she threw it either, even though air resistance and friction should've slowed it significantly after such a distance. What variable is being altered?"

"Um, Izuku kun?"

Snapping back to reality, away from Zero Gravity, Izuku shifted his attention back to Ochako at her questioning.

"Oh, uhh, sorry."

"Don't apologise, that was amazin',"

"Indeed Midoriya kun, such a level of analysis after such brief observation is astounding."

Having little precedent for genuine positive social interaction Izuku's reaction was to simply turn bright red and lose the ability to form coherent words.

* * *

Class the next day began extraordinarily ordinary, with the exception of one empty seat during homeroom and the morning classes.

After lunch was a different matter however.

Reentering the classroom, after what was probably the most amazing bowl of rice he'd ever eaten, Izuku eyes were immediately drawn to the shock of purple-hair adorning the occupant of the previously barren 19th seat.

The seat immediately behind his.

Tamping down on his body's attempted flight reaction from the possible return of the leering boy he was instead reacted with familiarity of a different kind.

"PURPLE HERO BOY!" he shouted with a tone and intensity that would usually correspond with a profound statement.

The room went silent.

Izuku turned an interesting shade of fuschia.

"I uh, mean. Hey … it's you … from the exam!?" he tried again, this time his pitch rising towards the end of his sentence as if denoting a question?

Blinking tiredly, the lilac-haired boy gave the loud greenette a once-over, then a twice over, before recognition finally registered in his severely bagged eyes.

"Lizard-guy?"

"Yes!"

"Huh. Thought you'd be more like chuckles here." he said, gesturing to the incarnation of explosions two seats further forward.

Bracing for an invective filled tirade directed their way, Izuku was dissonantly pleased and frightened by absence of a kaboom.

Tentatively checking to make sure Bakugou was still alive and breathing despite the missing aura of terror, he instead noted that Katsuki seemed to be positively docile.

The vacant expression he was sporting, which had unknitted his brows from their perpetual scowl, unnerved Izuku.

His own face portraying a politely, perplexed visage, Izuku turned back to the purple stranger and asked cautiously, "Your quirk?"

Adopting a closed, suspicious, countenance, the purplette answered, "Yeah?"

Ochako and Tenya, who'd remained silent throughout the exchange and had readied themselves to intervene on behalf of shy, green, ball of sunshine, were quite entertained when the mystery boy's face morphed again to one befuddlement due to Izuku's face lighting up like supernova.

"THAT'S SO COOL! HOW DOES IT WORK? IS IT TACTILE, OCULAR? DOES IT WORK ON MULTIPLE PEOPLE AT ONCE? WHAT KIND OF FEEDBACK-"

"**HERE I COME, TO TEACH THE CLASS!**" came a sudden sing-song interruption that burst in from the sliding door.

"**I AM HERE, ENTERING THE ROOM LIKE A NORMAL HUMAN BEING!**"

"I think you broke the door," croaked a dark green haired girl with her tongue poking out slightly.

Faltering slightly and surveying the door, which had come off its rollers when he'd swung it open as one would a hinged door, All Might cleared his throat and continued on with his prepared speech.

"**I WILL BE TEACHING YOU ALL; **_**HERO BASIC TRAINING**_**. IN THIS CLASS YOU WILL LEARN ABOUT THE FOUNDATIONS OF HERO WORK. THE DOS, THE DO NOTS, THE DO BETTERS AND THE NEVER DOS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE.**"

Pausing to let that sink in he observed the students' individual reactions.

Most had looks of awe, a few had looks of nervousness, a couple had completely inscrutable expressions, one appeared to be looking around in a mixture of confusion and indescribable fury and the one behind that exhibited puzzled curiosity, as if attempting to decipher a hidden meaning to his words.

"**TODAY'S LESSON,**** ONE OF UTMOST IMPORTANCE, WILL INVOLVE**" he dug into a secret belt compartment and withdrew a sign which read 'BATTLE.'

"**COMBAT**** SIMULATION!**"

Bakugou, who'd been knocked out of his trance by an errant door roller, ceased seething and adopted a countenance that would not seem amiss in a slasher-movie serial killer.

"Combat!" he reiterated with an _innocent grin._

'Simulation,' thought Izuku with his stomach plummeting.

"**BUT FOR STARTERS YOU'LL BE NEEDING THESE!**"

Sections of the wall slid open, displaying shelves holding numbered cases.

"**YOUR SPECIALLY DESIGNED COSTUMES! CHANGE INTO THESE AND MAKE YOUR WAY TO GROUND BETA. DON'T DALLY!**"

* * *

Bringing up the rear of the group due to making sure his costume's _special features_ weren't going to activate prematurely and cause him grief or embarrassment, Izuku glanced around at his classmates' gear and pondered how they might affect or enhance their performances.

In the middle of pondering why Todoroki was half covered in ice, Ochako caught his attention with a question.

"Is that you Midoriya kun? Guess my outfit doesn't seem so tight-fitted after all. What're the boxy bits and the dots for?"

Thankful for the mask covering his blush Izuku was saved from answering by All Might clearing his throat.

"**ALL RIGHT LADIES, GENTS, EITHER, NEITHER OR OTHER. LET'S GET DOWN TO BUSINESS.**"

Izuku could swear he heard someone in the crowd, murmuring about Huns.

"**TODAY'S EXERCISE WILL SEE YOU DOING SOME ROLE-PLAYING.**"

The blonde boy with a lightning bolt in his hair put his hand up.

"**No not that kind of role-playing.**"

His hand went back down.

"**THE SCENARIO IS THUSLY: VILLAINS HAVE STOLEN A WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION AND IT'S UP TO THE HEROES TO APPREHEND THEM AND SECURE THE DEVICE. CONVERSELY IT'S UP TO THE VILLAINS TO DEFEND THE DEVICE ****AND FEND OFF THE HEROES.**"

"Will the device be in the open?"

"Will we be expelled for failing the task?"

"Can we pound the other team into submission?"

"How will teams be chosen?"

"Isn't my cape très magnifique?"

"**NO, NO, DEFINITELY NOT, I'LL GET TO THAT AND YES, VERY NICE.**"

Somehow the vicinity became filled with sparkles.

"**DESPITE THE MAJORITY OF VILLAIN ATTACKS TAKING PLACE OUTSIDE THE MORE DASTARDLY ACTIVITIES OCCUR INDOORS. YOU WILL BE DIVIDED INTO PAIRS BY RANDOMLY CHOSEN LOTS AND DESIGNATED HEROES OR VILLAINS. THE DEVICES WILL BE PLACED ****WITHIN A BUILDING. THE VILLAIN TEAM WILL BE GIVEN 5 MINUTES TO REARRANGE THE BUILDING AND BOMB POSITION IN PREPARATION FOR THE HERO TEAM'S ARRIVAL.**"

"Randomly chosen?" began the tall armoured mechanical knight Izuku was able to identify as Iida.

"To make it like real life. Heroes often have to make partnerships on the fly to deal with situations," Izuku explained.

"**CORRECT. ****THE HERO TEAM WILL HAVE 15 MINUTES TO APPREHEND THE VILLAIN TEAM BY SECURING THE BOMB OR AFFIXING THIS CAPTURE TAPE TO THEM. LIKEWISE THE VILLAINS WILL HAVE TO PROTECT THE WEAPON OR TAKE DOWN THE HERO TEAM IN THE SAME AMOUNT OF TIME. ****NOW ****COME UP AND CHOOSE YOUR LOTS****.**"

After each student had fished out their lots, been paired up and their teams assigned roles, the distribution was as follows.

• Heroes: Aoyama Yuga and Shinsou Hitoshi. Villains: Iida Tenya and Bakugou Katsuki.

• Heroes Todoroki Shouto and Tokoyami Fumikage. Villains: Sero Hanta and Satou Rikidou.

• Heroes: Kirishima Eijirou and Jirou Kyouka. Villains: Ojiro Mashirao and Hagakure Touru.

• Heroes: Uraraka Ochako and Kaminari Denki. Villains: Yaoyorozu Momo and Midoriya Izuku.

• Heroes: Asui Tsuyu and Koda Kouji. Villains: Ashido Mina and Shouji Mezou.

"**IIDA KUN, BAKUGOU KUN, ****YOU GO IN**** FIRST. ****AOYAMA KUN, SHINSOU KUN USE THIS TIME WISELY. YOU EACH HAVE A FLOOR PLAN. HOP TO IT. THE REST OF YOU, FOLLOW ME TO THE VIEWING ROOM.**"

* * *

"Hey glasses, you hang out with Deku right?"

"I am friends with Midoriya kun, yes."

"Since when does that useless shitbag have a quirk?"

"Useless wha- I am find it increasingly difficult to refrain from castigating you for your foul mouth and complete disregard for your classmates. Futhermore-"

"Save the spiel for the extras, when the fuck did Deku get a quirk?**"**

"Well I never … I am unsure of the premise of the question. Midoriya has been somewhat reticent on the subject of his quirk. He tends to shift focus to the quirks of others if the subject is brought up. Why do you ask? Surely he received his quirk somewhere between birth and the age of five, did he not?"

"I wouldn't be asking if he did, now would I? You got goat shit for brains or something?"

"How vulgar."

"**5 MINUTES ARE UP. HERO TEAM, ENTER THE BUILDING!**"

"I'ma go stomp that purple haired mindfucker."

Iida chose to remain silent at that remark.

* * *

"**OBSERVE CAREFULLY STUDENTS. TAKE NOTE OF TACTICS AND STRATAGEM.**"

Towards the back of the room Izuku ceased furiously scribbling in the notebook he had produced from somewhere and returned his focus to the screen displaying the hero team's approach.

"Hey Midoriya," called a red-haired semi-shirtless boy, who's outfit apparently included a bridle and gear-shaped shoulder guards.

Turning and nodding to confirm his attention, as his mask hid where he was looking.

"You know Bakugou from before right? He's manly as hell. He's got this in the bag, huh?"

"He and Iida certainly have the advantage in raw power and Kaa- Bakugou has great natural instincts when it comes to fighting and planning but there's certainly still a chance if Shinsou kun can catch him off guard and Iida is unlikely to be able to outrun Aoyama san's stomach beams. Granted they don't move remotely as fast as light so calling them lasers is just-"

"Oh hey, Bakugou's leaving Iida alone to guard the bomb."

"Oh … yeah B-Bakugou hates working with others. In his mind, it's not his victory unless he does it himself. This may just give the hero team, the edge they need."

* * *

"So you're clear on this?"

"Oui, mon ami, when you give ze signal, I shall play my part avec grâce."

"Uhh, right. Bien I guess."

Replacing a large black contraption over his mouth Shinsou approached the building's entrance, none of the nervousness he was experiencing showing on what could be seen of his face.

Working their way up the building with as much stealth as a boy with bright purple hair and a disco knight in literal shining armour could muster their progress suddenly halted at Hitoshi's behest.

"Did you hear that?"

"Hear wha-"

"GET DOWN!"

With a single, deft, movement, that belied his gangly form, Shinsou had tackled his teammate to the floor, barely avoiding losing his eyebrows to the flaming deflagration that occupied the space his head had less than a second previous.

"Huh. Guess you aren't all talk are you mindfreak?"

'Does he know?'

"If I blast you enough, you won't have any time to talk so you won't be able to take me over, huh?"

'He knows.'

Scrambling to his feet and somehow dragging the armour-clad boy with him, Shinsou shot back.

"I was only joking earlier. You don't look like a shitzu. More like a pomeranian."

Bakugou's eye twitched but his fierce grimace didn't shift at all. His hands however did.

Dodging the confuting explosion by diving into an alcove, still dragging Aoyama like a ragdoll, Hitoshi asked, "You ready?"

Receiving an affirming nod he yelled "NOW!"

"A PRESENT FOR MADEMOISELLE, NAVEL BEAM!"

Bakugou dodged the not-actually-a-laser beam with disgusting ease.

"THE FUCK YOU MEAN MADEMOISELLE YOU SNAIL-EATING FRO-"

Bakugou's face slackened into neutrality.

"Control successful." announced Aoyama's voice ... from Shinsou.

* * *

"Woah, what happened? Why'd he stop all of a sudden."

"That's brilliant! They've won."

"**YOUNG MIDORIYA MAY INDEED BE CORRECT BUT PLEASE HOLD THE EXPLANATION FOR THE END.**"

* * *

"Walk over here and wrap this capture tape around yourself."

Zombie-Bakugou dutifully complied.

"**YOUNG BAKUGOU HAS BEEN CAPTURED.**"

* * *

"C-captured. How could this be? That arrogant fool. Now it is up to me to carry out this dastardly scheme alone. Evil! Maniacal! Villainous! MWAHAHAHA!"

* * *

"Gero. All Might Sensei. Why are you biting your fist?"

"**DOH REDON**" Answered All Might around a mouthful of fist, trying desperately not to laugh.

* * *

After making there way up another flight of stairs and heading towards the direction of loud cackling.

Trying to sneak carefully into the room but failing when one of Aoyama's pauldrons clanked against a pillar the two prepared for a confrontation.

"AHA! You have dispatched my minion and made it to my lair. But this is where your journey comes to an end heroes. You shan't touch this weapon whilst I still draw breath!"

Aoyama's expression remained unchanged from his usual beatific smile and Shinsou's eyebrows rose up his forehead.

"Err right. Well uhh, we'll stop you either way Meshiden[1] san."

Caught flatfooted by the apparent misreading of his name Iida spoke up to correct the mistake.

"It's Iida, why would you call me something so delici-"

Iida froze mid hand chop.

"Would you like to do the honours?"

"Merci monsieur."

Aoyama strolled over and placed a hand on the large _Papier_-_mâché_ prop.

"**HERO TEAM WINS!**"

* * *

Once everyone was gathered in the viewing room and Bakugou had stopped seething so hard his hands exploded on their own All Might spoke up.

"**CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHO THE MVP IS?**"

Several hands rose and All Might picked Midoriya who appeared to be dancing on the spot.

"Shinsou kun."

"**INDEED, AND WHY IS THAT?**"

"Shinsou kun came up with a plan that rendered his opponent's knowledge of his quirk's function moot and carried out that plan perfectly. Despite Iida kun's staying in character so well he lost focus at the end. Bakugou-"

A withering glare from the boy in question made him fumble.

"B-Bakugou w-went off on his own w-without consulting his teammate. Aoyama had to be saved but cooperated excellently with his own teammate and performed his role in the plan with remarkable precision."

"What was the plan though?" the red-head asked.

"**WOULD YOU LIKE TO CONTINUE ELUCIDATING YOUR CLASSMATES YOUNG MIDORIYA.**"

"You've had to take elocution lessons before, is that right Aoyama kun?"

"Vraiment astucieux, Midoriya kun." he said before suddenly his accent vanished. "I have indeed had lessons for speaking Japanese and English having moved to Japan from France when I was much younger. How, pray tell, were you able to deduce this?"

While the rest of the class were reeling from the abrupt change Izuku took it in stride.

"You were mouthing the words but your throat wasn't moving and Shinsou Kun's was."

"And why were you paying so much attention to our throats?" Hitoshi asked, slightly weirded out.

"Uhm … Some of my forms don't have ears so I've taken to focusing on people's mouths, vocal chords and body language j-just in case."

Suddenly very uncomfortable in the limelight Izuku looked back to All Might, hoping for him to continue.

"**AHEM, VERY GOOD YOUNG MIDORIYA. YOUNG SHINSOU IS INDEED THE MVP FOR THIS MATCH. ****NEXT TEAMS HEAD OUT!**"

* * *

Satou and Sero never stood a chance. Todoroki simply froze the building and requested Tokoyami search one side of the building whilst he searched the other.

The round finished in 48 seconds.

Shouto was MVP.

* * *

Jirou's hearing and Kirishima's hardening were almost the perfect counter to Hagakure's Ojiro's martial arts. Kyouka was able to pinpoint Tooru's footfalls and despite Mashirao's masterful prowess in throws and ability to fend off someone stronger than himself Eijirou's refusal to give the tailed boy a moment's reprieve to focus on the odd-eared girl meant his teammate was bypassed and the weapon secured by the heroes.

On the way down Jirou congratulated Hagakure on a killer right hook and Kirishima wouldn't stop gushing about how MANLY Ojiro's moves were.

MVP went to Jirou for use of tactics: taking an avoidable hit to advance the goal.

* * *

Izuku was having a mild conniption. He wanted very much to ask his teammate about forming a plan besides fortification but every time he turned his focus to here she was forming something new and showing off far more skin than he was comfortable seeing in person.

"Midoriya san, if you have something to add, now would be the time to do so."

Staring at the floor hard at the floor and steeling himself to not become tongue tied for his next sentence.

"W-will you be able to defend this room from within? B-because I m-may be able to run interference out there and d-defend the entrances."

"It is unlikely they will be able to enter this room from either door. I wish you had informed me sooner that you wished to exit, I am unsure if I will be able to replace the reinforcements before time is up." she bemoaned, preparing to dismantle her handiwork.

"T-that won't b-be necessary Y-yaoy-yorozu san."

She turned to face the stuttering greenette out of curiosity.

Noting the odd, vaguely gun-shaped, device he had retrieved from a container at his waist she observed him adjusting a few of the black spots on the back of his right glove.

"I won't be able to get back in, easily, or talk back once I do this so p-please bear with me."

"Will you be able to vocalise?"

"Uhh. Yes ... why?"

"Then I will adapt my questions to be answered in either the affirmative or negative. A single response for yes, two for no. Is that agreeable?"

Turning to face her properly and smiling brightly, Izuku nodded.

"That'll be perfect." he beamed before twisting the end of the device at the tip and aligning it with his suit's hand spots.

"Could uhm. Could you turn around for a second. I'm about to grow a bit and, if they got the specs right, my suit is likely going to function like breakaway clothing."

"O-oh. Uhm Of course." Momo said, blushing slightly whilst turning away.

"**FIVE MINUTES ARE UP! HEROES HEAD IN!**"

Momo heard a beep, several simultaneous pops and the sound of several sets of velcro tabs coming unstuck.

Waiting a few seconds further until the room's lighting ceased changing colour Yaoyorozu turned back around and gaped at the hulking creature before her.

Her first impression was of an enormous black, bipedal crab, on crystalline stilts, eating a one-eyed bat.

Her second, upon closer examination revealed that her first was not far off.

Hunched before her was Kabourophobe's nightmare.

Even bent over as it was she would have had to jump to be level with the unblinking eye in the middle of its face, unless she counted the corresponding, vivid green orbs, staring at her from the base of each of its tractor-tyre sized claws.

In place of feet and a lower back, large clusters of emerald green crystal sprouted and appeared to be pulsing, as if liquid inside.

There was no visible connection between its legs, torso and head but staring at the spaces between proved to cause discomfort behind her eyes.

Its head, comprised of the same onyx chitin as the rest of it, was a bizarre combination of an open, sharp toothed mouth and a bat in flight, hovering above the torso as it did.

The menacing aura of the beast was completely shattered the moment it tilted its head, lifted a claw and waved to her whilst emitting a chirruping squeak.

Remembering she was in the middle of a lesson and the demonic crustacean before her was her teammate, Momo filed away the turbulent storm of emotions for later and, with poise she barely felt, she found her voice.

"So … you will be off now?"

With a bob of its head, a parting chirp and a short hop, the Izuku, crab monster, thing, vanished into the floor below through its own shadow.

* * *

**OMAKE**

[On the way to the changing rooms]

"So that's the reason I called him 'purple hero boy,'"

"That is understandable Midoriya kun."

"So your vision like that ain- isn't that good huh?"

"Not really. If he hadn't of yelled out or started running I may not have noticed either of them."

"So wait" piped up a pink-skinned girl. "When you're a dino-dude, you're pretty much flying blind right?"

"Uhm sort of, yeah. Why?"

"Would that make you a Do-you-think-he-saurus?"

She was met with dead silence.

"If you had a dog, would you call him Do-you-think-he-saurus Rex?"

The silence stretched on.

"What uh, do you think of uh, chaos theory?"

The trio continued their trek towards the change-rooms.

"Do you move in herds?"

"Well technically I can form a group of-"

"Midoriya, do not encourage her."

She continued to chase them the rest of the way, playing discordant melodica music on her phone.

* * *

[1] The first Kanji for Iida can be read as cooked/boiled rice. Might've had the Don Panini scene from bleach running through my head.

Apologies for huge gap but at least the chapter's longer.

The teams and their order came from a random number generator type thingy which, defying many odds, just so happened to spit out two canon teams and alignments. Weird.

In addition to all the crazy going on my Dad's appendix decided it'd be an excellent time to burst, then the meds they put him on after surgery gave him vertigo. My mum got a respiratory infection and then had a bad reaction to the antibiotics she was on, par for the course. Meanwhile my new meds make me either sleep for 18 hours straight or not at all for 24+ hours. Yay.

Hope to have next chapter out far sooner than this, considering this one was likely to be written and uploaded a day after the previous one, with all the motivation running through me before everything went to pot.

Ships are still up in the air so if you have any thoughts or rationalisations on who and why be sure to put them in a review. We haven't gone far enough into Izuku's psyche and dug up all the underlying issues yet though so stay tuned.

My experience with french is less than zero so more apologies.

Ochako's quirk weirdness came about in a vastly off topic, impromptu discussion in the comments of a reddit post. The what and how will be revealed in due course.

Anyone figured out what sort of things Izuku's shifting into yet? It's going to come with a lot of extras down the line and may make all sorts of wonderful confusion.

Stay safe, stay frosty, stay curious.


End file.
